This invention relates generally to the field of agricultural machinery, and particularly to improvements in corn harvesting attachments to self-propelled harvesting machines.
A corn harvester or a combine generally includes feed channels that cut off and draw in plants which stand to some extent in front of the feed channel mouth in the direction of harvester travel. In order for such a harvesting device to function correctly, the lateral distance between the feed channels must match the distance between the plant rows fairly precisely. German patent 3 029 424 C2 describes such a device.
The device described in European Patent 0 712 567 is a field chopper that includes a cutting and feeding device that finely chops the entire corn plant and does not require plants in rows matching the feed channel mouth lateral spacing to operate correctly. Instead, the device includes several tandem conveying discs arranged coaxially at a distance from each other, which have special recesses or teeth regularly distributed over the circumference. Under each tandem disc rotates at higher speed a bladed disc which cuts the corn stalks off just above the ground which are then picked up by the recesses of the conveying disc during the harvester traveling motion. The plants then move essentially upright along the circumference of the conveying discs to the feed region of this device which is the wedge shaped region formed between adjacent conveying discs.
It would be desirable to overcome the limitation of current corn harvesters which require corn to be planted in precisely spaced rows. It is also desirable to process ears of corn separately from the rest of the plant which at present is a capability held only by harvesters requiring corn to be planted in precise rows
An object of the invention is to provide a corn harvesting attachment which can cut stalks independently of rows (i.e. without regard to rows) and pick the corn cobs and transport them on separately from the remaining plant parts.